[Article] Ambulance carrying pregnant woman in crash

Bluetonic

An ambulance bringing a pregnant woman to a maternity hospital in Dublin was involved in a crash along the quays at O’Connell Bridge, it was confirmed today.

Two people were taken to hospital after a Health Board ambulance and a car were involved in a minor collision at around 9.20am.

A separate fire brigade ambulance rushed the woman to the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin after the crash.

A Dublin Fire Brigade spokesman said: “A pregnant lady was in an ambulance on its way to the Rotunda Hospital. She was then taken by fire brigade ambulance.”

Another person, who was in the car involved in the collision, was taken to St James’s Hospital for treatment.

A fire brigade spokesman said: “They weren’t seriously injured it was a collision rather than a smash.”

A spokeswoman for the Rotunda Hospital said, due to confidentiality, it could not comment on any patient.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/09/15/story220936.html

BrianD

mmmm...given that going into labour is a slow process, one wonders why an ambulance had to used and if it does why it needs to rush to the hospital. I'm assuming that there were no other complications.

Victor

Its quite possible the first ambulance was being used in a non-emergency situation to transfer the patient when it was struck by the car, then the emergency ambulance took over.

BrianD

An ambulance for a "non emergency" situation. She should be driven to the hospital in a private car or taxi. This is why the hospitals are in a mess - too many "non emergency" patients using the resources.

FinoBlad

BrianD wrote:

I'm assuming that .............

Dont assume Mr D, ranters that assume do my head in.

Bogger77

BrianD wrote:

mmmm...given that going into labour is a slow process, one wonders why an ambulance had to used and if it does why it needs to rush to the hospital. I'm assuming that there were no other complications.

An ambulance is a patient transfer vehicle, and that's what it was doing.

you're assuming a lot, from that ivory tower, that labour is a slow process. Was the lady being transferred a member of a high risk group, diabetic, heart etc? I don't know, based on that article and either do you. SO less baseless ranting please.

BrianD

Ivory tower?

Yes and I am questioning its use as a "patient transfer vehicle". Plenty of questions to be asked.

Bogger77

Ivory Tower --> You seem to have decided what exactly occured based on a breakingnews.ie 7 sentance report.

Look up ambulance in a good dictionary, and you'll see patient transfer vehicle. For the transfer of a patient from one hospital to another, insurance and common sense would demad you use a vehicle equiped for any incidents that might occur during the trip. Now, i know there's a load of new fancy Taxi's in Dublin, but I've not seen one with an O2 supply. Plus, you'd have to have at least a nurse with the patient, so now hospital A is without a nurse for the duration of a return trip.
Plus, you reckon a taxi driver, who wouldn't let a customer drink water would let a woman in labour into his car just to move her from Hospital A to Hospital B? Who pays the clean up costs? And would you rather she lay across the back seat, unsecured by seatbelts, or sit in the front seat, with the seat back laid flat, again she'd be unsecured by seatbelts ? Cos you can be sure, she won't be able to be sitting up with a seatbelt round here if she's in labour. Ambulance, which has a secured strecher fitted with safety restraints is the ideal mode of transport for a person in labour.

Brian, would you rather your wife or girlfriend, assuming you have one, and in the middle of labour, be taken in a taxi,without medical staff, from one hospital to a specialist hospital?

MrPudding

Labour is not always a slow process.

Often the hospital will recommend the patient call an ambulance.

What are people with no cars and not enough money for a taxi supposed to do?

MrP

BrianD

Bogger77 wrote:

Ivory Tower --> You seem to have decided what exactly occured based on a breakingnews.ie 7 sentance report.

Look up ambulance in a good dictionary, and you'll see patient transfer vehicle. For the transfer of a patient from one hospital to another, insurance and common sense would demad you use a vehicle equiped for any incidents that might occur during the trip. Now, i know there's a load of new fancy Taxi's in Dublin, but I've not seen one with an O2 supply. Plus, you'd have to have at least a nurse with the patient, so now hospital A is without a nurse for the duration of a return trip.
Plus, you reckon a taxi driver, who wouldn't let a customer drink water would let a woman in labour into his car just to move her from Hospital A to Hospital B? Who pays the clean up costs? And would you rather she lay across the back seat, unsecured by seatbelts, or sit in the front seat, with the seat back laid flat, again she'd be unsecured by seatbelts ? Cos you can be sure, she won't be able to be sitting up with a seatbelt round here if she's in labour. Ambulance, which has a secured strecher fitted with safety restraints is the ideal mode of transport for a person in labour.

Brian, would you rather your wife or girlfriend, assuming you have one, and in the middle of labour, be taken in a taxi,without medical staff, from one hospital to a specialist hospital?

Yes a 7 line report is all I have to go. There is no mention of an inter-hospital transfer. And yes, I would expect somebody with out complications to travel in a private car or taxi rather than call for an ambulance. I believe its the normal way to arrive at a maternity hospital. i can't see why you'd need oxegen, a nurse etc. Why would there be clean up costs???? The woman is giving birth as millions do every day. In fact, I think Holles St have 24 new arrivals eveyday.

I would certainly say that the practice of calling an ambulance to go a maternity hospital is as wasteful as a person sitting in an A&E department with the flu.

Putting a report about an ambulance having a collision on O'Connell Bridge is really irrelevant to this board unless there is connection to commuting and transport. One has to wonder are all these emergency vehicles flying around actually need to be in the first place.

Victor

An ambulance is potentially any vehicle with the word "ambulance" written on it and the health service operates a number of them using anything from Ford Transit minibusses (with or without wheelchair lift) up to the full whack €350,000 ambulance conversion.

BrianD

We do seem to have alot of emergency vehicles whizzing around the city with sirens and lights on. It's something I notice about Dublin especially after returning from foreign parts.

Bee

BrianD wrote:

We do seem to have alot of emergency vehicles whizzing around the city with sirens and lights on. It's something I notice about Dublin especially after returning from foreign parts.

Part of the reason is the shambles in the Health service due to FF/PD's (I will happily point out why on a.n.other forum).

On any hour of any day you have Ambulance's been re-directed "on the fly" so to speak, due to over flowing A&e units. A disgraceful and sometimes lethally tragic waste of resources due to FF/PD's lack of political mangerial skills

Bee

DublinWriter

BrianD wrote:

This is why the hospitals are in a mess - too many "non emergency" patients using the resources.

Really? Phew. And there I was thinking that it was because of the closure of 800 beds in the last five years* by the current FF/PD junta.

*Source: Dr.Maurice Nelligan, from interview on Sunday Show on RTE Radio 1 some weeks ago.

D'Peoples Voice

DublinWriter wrote:

Really? Phew. And there I was thinking that it was because of the closure of 800 beds in the last five years* by the current FF/PD junta.

*Source: Dr.Maurice Nelligan, from interview on Sunday Show on RTE Radio 1 some weeks ago.

You might want to add that the Health budget has gone from €4 bn to just over €11 bn since 1997, while the transport budget(capital part) has gone from €400 mn to €1.4mn also over the same period. It shows where this government's priorities lie :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: